His fish will also be a world record if it is verified by the International Game Fish Association.

"I fought the fish for about two to three minutes before I got it to the bank," Maverick said. “I thought I caught a pretty big fish, but I didn’t know it was a state record until my dad told me to look it up online. I’m super excited to hold a state record!”

Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month

Get full access to Belleville News-Democrat content across all your devices.

River redhorse fish are a moderately chubby, coarse-scaled fish with a dorsal fin containing 12 or 13 rays and can be found mostly through the Ozarks, according to the Department of Conservation.

While Maverick's fish set a state record for the redhorse, it did not come close to beating the record for the biggest fish ever caught in Missouri. That happened in January 2017, when John Paul Morris — the son of the founder of Bass Pro Shops — caught a fish that weights 57 pounds, 13 ounces.

And fortunately for Maverick and his dad, his record fish didn't lead to a water rescue, as happened in Feburary 2018 in Florida when five fishermen ended up in the ocean after a marlin they hooked sunk their boat.

Read Next

Clinton County, IL elected board member Keith Nordike is charged with official misconduct in Southern Illinois. He is accused of putting a tracking device on county highway department employee Ron Becker’s car.